26/02/2019 Emma Smith named to Forbes’ ‘30 Under 30’ list | Islands' Sounder

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Emma Smith named to Forbes’ ‘30 Under30’ list

Fri Feb 22nd, 2019 1:30am • LIFE (HTTP://WWW.ISLANDSSOUNDER.COM/LIFE/)

by Diane Craig

Sounder Contributor

Former Orcas resident Emma Smith was recently named to the prestigious Forbes’

“30 Under 30 European Technology List.”

Smith, 26, is the co-founder and Chief Operating O�cer of the Berlin-based

startup Eversend, a mobile-wallet payment system for African consumers that

makes it easier and cheaper to send money through mobile phones and saves the

user up to 20 percent in transfer fees. According to the Forbes website, the start-

up “has transferred $5.4 million for more than 9,000 users.”

26/02/2019 Emma Smith named to Forbes’ ‘30 Under 30’ list | Islands' Sounder

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Attending Orcas Island Christian School from 4th through 10th grade, Smith

spent her junior year abroad, followed by a two-year study program in New

Mexico at the United World College, from which she graduated in 2012. Her

studies at UWC fueled an interest in international politics, a path she followed to

a Bachelor of Arts/Science degree from Duke University, where she also studied

Arabic and fell in love with the African continent.

Smith received a Master of Arts/Science degree from the London School of

Economics, where she studied international economics and coding. While

attending graduate school, she met a fellow student who frequently sent money

back to his family in Africa, always with di�culty and always expensive. Together,

they developed the mobile application that became the startup Eversend. Smith

makes her home between Paris and Berlin.

Smith’s selection by Forbes means that she will be attending the World Economic

Summit in March in Jordan.

She credits her mission trips to New Mexico and Costa Rica during her years at

Orcas Christian among the in�uences on her career. But her biggest in�uence is

the Orcas Island community.

“I want everyone on the island to know that my global mindset is because of

them,” she told the Sounder. “They showed me how to live with intention, how to

be a good citizen and how to be a good person. It’s the people on the island who

made me who I am today.”

26/02/2019 Emma Smith named to Forbes’ ‘30 Under 30’ list | Islands' Sounder

http://www.islandssounder.com/life/emma-smith-named-to-forbes-30-under-30-list/ 4/16

Her mother, Orcas Islander Lynsey Smith, also has high marks for the island’s

teachers.

“Our island educators are the true heroes that mentor and shape our ‘30 under

30,’” she said.

 

 

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